The Boxing Standard

An online journal of boxing.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Hopkins-Pavlik

There's a lot to be said both culturally and generationally about last night's fight. Two things jump out at me. The first is that Bernard Hopkins is never going to be snookered into a loss. You've got to really know how to fight in order to beat him. He's a terrible choice as an opponent for someone on the verge of stardom who hasn't been entirely tested. The second thing (and I think it's a very sophisticated point regarding a fighter's development) is that Kelly Pavlik's fate was probably sealed before the fight by the kind of "blue collar hero" marketing that was done on his behalf (to say nothing of Bob Arum's vast overestimation of him.) This type of pigeonholing (which made it necessary for Kelly to stick with an amateur trainer when he could have had a pro) forced Kelly Pavlik to be one kind of fighter. He's capable of learning (witness the vast improvement between his first and second Taylor fights), but can't do that if he's supposed to fight in a specific manner.